LOS ANGELES — Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of
South Park, recently proved again that if you make content people love, paradigm shifts
don’t matter.

Onstage with Hulu at the Television Critics Association’s twice-yearly convention during the
weekend, Stone and Parker announced a three-year deal that gives the service exclusive rights to
stream the huge back catalog of
South Park, which consists of more than 240 episodes, as well as the current season’s
episodes immediately after they are broadcast on Comedy Central.

The $80 million-dollar-plus deal means Kenny and the boys will continue to frolic for years to
come.

It also points to a broader trend that the titans at the critics’ gathering, which continues
through next Wednesday, might want to put on their agendas: High-demand content is going to become
even pricier as additional platforms open up.

“What we do is expensive. It takes a lot of people, and it makes sense to put it through windows
in a way that produces a lot of value,” Stone said in a recent interview. “We do what we do because
we act like we own the stuff and try to surf whatever wave is out there.”

In the past, much of the
South Park archive has been available in other places — on basic cable, syndicated on
ad-supported television, on Netflix and on SouthParkStudios.com.

Now, as competition has heated up among companies that provide programming on the Web,
exclusivity matters.

Hulu, which offers a mix of free, ad-supported programming and a pay premium service, can use
South Park to attract young men — a tough demographic to reach.
South Park is a marquee acquisition that will bring luster and attention to the original
programming Hulu is beginning to produce and the rest of the catalog it streams.

Hulu, which underwent an identity crisis, seems to have stabilized as it looks for a sweet spot
between Netflix and traditional television.

Last year, Hulu topped $1 billion in revenue, and it boasts 6 million subscribers to its Hulu
Plus premium service.

“We have a great user experience, and we already know how popular the show has been with our
viewers based on data we already have,” said Craig Erwich, head of content at Hulu. “This is a deal
for all of the people who have ever watched
South Park.”

New episodes of
South Park will go through many windows — on television on Comedy Central, on the Web at
South ParkStudios.com for viewing on mobile devices and computers and now through streaming on
Hulu.com and Hulu Plus.

The durable appeal of
South Park is also a reminder to the rest of the industry that playing nice with a show’s
fan base helps.

Since its debut in 1997,
South Park has been pirated, parodied and knocked off.

Through it all, Stone and Parker have never played hardball, instead concentrating on new
platforms and making sure that
South Park was waiting when those new ways of watching opened up.